Besides colorants or color pigments, effect pigments, such as metallic flakes, are widely used for producing coatings having desired appearance and aesthetic effects. The use of effect pigments in a coating can impart a differential light reflection effect, color changing effect upon varying viewing or illumination conditions, sparkle effect, coarseness, as well as the enhancement of depth perception in the coating. Aluminum flakes, a type of metallic flakes, are commonly used as effect pigments in coatings for automobile bodies and other articles. For repairing a previously coated article that has a coating including effect pigments, for example, an automotive body, it is necessary to choose the correct colorants or colorant combinations to match the color of that coated article as well as the correct effect pigments such as flakes to match both the color and appearance of that coated article.
In many instances, matching the color and appearance of a coated article requires comparing the color and appearance of the coated article to a plurality of coating chips of a fandeck under “white light” conditions. However, coatings including effects pigments typically exhibit a coarseness appearance that must be matched separately from the color. When attempting to match the coarseness appearance of a coated article, a plurality of coating chips including a range of coarseness values are compared to the coarseness appearance of the coated article. The coating chips typically have a neutral color or achromatic color, such as a silver color, while the coated article may have a chromatic color, such as a red color. Judging a chromatic coated article against a neutral coating chip for a proper coarseness value under “white light” conditions is difficult due to the large color difference between the coating chip and the coated article. Alternatively, coating chips may be keyed to specific colors and coarseness appearances that may be utilized to match the coarseness appearance of a coated article. However, the vast number of coating chips necessary to be generated to account for all colors utilized in the market is expensive and burdensome to maintain year after year.
Accordingly, there are needs for more effectively and efficiently matching coarseness appearance of a target coating of a coated article. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with this background.